(.net) technology and society

February 07, 2006

DEMO 2006 Kicks Off

The ever-popular Chris Shipley kicked off DEMO 2006 with a "sweet 16" of product launches for the day. (This the 16th year for DEMO.) Here's some sound bites from this morning's six-minute demonstrations:

StreetDeck comes from MP3Car.com
and is (duh) essentially a computer integrated into your car - the
difference is that it's designed to be user-friendly, like a consumer
PC that you can run your own applications on. The touchscreen interface
is reminiscent of the Palm OS. Sample applications: access to your own
MP3 lists and multidimensional direction maps that you can tilt in the
screen window, and though they remain flat you more intutively feel
yourself 'driving' in the right direction. StreetDeck also talks to
your cell phone, so you can pull up your address book in and make calls
from the touchscreen, which is easier than having to menu through the
phone.

StreetDeck was quite interesting, but I would bet that direct
consumer adoption will be a tough hurdle. I know that I would hesitate
to monkey with my car's computer electronics, especially in order to
integrate a device that runs my own software. I don't worry about a
software virus on my desktop killing me. That being said, it would
become a very compelling offering if offered by the dealer, with
assurances of protection. Alternatively, it's pretty compelling for me
since my car has very few electronics embedded (I drive a stick,
two-seater roadster.) The StreetDeck system would basically be
standalone in this case.

The DigiSmart projection system from Digislide Holdings
has interesting potential, but still needs some work. (The company is
looking for $9.75M to finish development and a business plan.) This
system integrates with your phone, PDA, or laptop and creates a 11" x
17" projection. From the audiencem, this looked dim and small, so it's
most applicable if sharing video from something with a very small
screen (like a phone). I'm not sure that this is worth it if working
with my laptop, which already has a 15" screen.

Tiny Pictures (FKA the
Fours Initiative) launched a phone client for picture sharing called
Radar. It's quite nicely done. The idea is to share your life stream of
experiences with your friends and family, which possibility is uniquely
enabled given the preponderance of cameraphones. The most neat thing
about the client is that it's not only for smart phones,
but for any Java phone. There's also a browser-enabled version for
people who don't have Java-enabled phones, but have a phone with a
browser.

Most cool! The inventor of the Furby has a new venture called Ugobe,
and has invented a new robotics toy called the Pleo. (Pleo is a very,
very cute baby dinosaur.) The audience watched the initial activation
of the Pleo, and with time and learning the actions become more
sophisticated. The motion is much more lifelike than the Aibo.

Zingee is peer-to-peer file
sharing for any kind of file that you want to make available from your
desktop. Individuals can add Web links to any desktop content, and then
share those links over blogs, emails, etc. About freaking time!

GarageBand just launched a
service for iPods called Gpal. This service-based application helps
music listeners to create and share smart playlists; CEO Ali Partovi
thinks that it will replace music radio. Gpal automatically creates
playlists based on any artist that you select. Based on that selection,
the application sets up a randomized playlist based on what other
artists sound like the artist selected. Right now, matches are based
upon editorial selectionn, but over time this will get smarter based
upon how other individuals are combining artists in their lists. Gpal
also allows you to discover new artists, with automatic downloads of
free material from other artists, and automatically adding new artists
that emerge to your existing playlist if they are a style match. What I
liked was that the names would be added even if I didn't already own
any songs by that artist...so in the future, if I do purchase a song
from that artist, my iPod will know that it goes in that list.

The Multiverse Network makes
it possible for real, community-developed online worlds to emerge, so I
took special note of this product. In its first week, 2200 game
developers have already signed up to be part of the Multiverse beta
program. The company is talking to several game developers with $MM
budgets who are interested in using the Multiverse Platform to build
their game. Film developers are interested in using Multiverse Platform
to build virtual worlds based upon their film projects. (James Cameron
has signed up with interest, and agreed to be an advisor.) For context,
the company notes that World of Warcraft cost $55M to make, and that
their system will allow independents to enter the massively-multiplayer
online gaming (MMOG) market without betting on an individual title.

CNET touted a new product to drive
cross-selling. Most of the offering seemed to be good common sense, but
there was a true innovation: they only charge success fees, so if you
don't have any add-on sales, you don't pay them a dime.

ID Vault from GuardID Systems
enables consumers to 'take control of their online identity' by selling
them a two-factor, token-based sign-on product. The user enters one pin
on their computer, which then enables the ID Vault to open up any
online account that has been set up within it. Password grabs are
blocked because the user is entering his or her password into a
software application, rather than into a browser.

BiggerBoat provides digital
media search - products, web sites, events, downloads - with a focus on
entertainment distribution and advertising. The company states that it
has no competitors, but the offering compares reasonably to Loomia and GoFish
from a user perspective. In CEO Adam Lilling's brief talk, it seemed
that the business model differentiator seems to be BiggerBoat's
interest in owning an entertainment ad network, rather than the
inventory of content.

Comments

DEMO 2006 Kicks Off

The ever-popular Chris Shipley kicked off DEMO 2006 with a "sweet 16" of product launches for the day. (This the 16th year for DEMO.) Here's some sound bites from this morning's six-minute demonstrations: